Frankie Cooper’s bomb has left the Harrigans scrambling, and “Blank Curtain” spends most of its hour on damage control before closing with gunfire. Somewhere in the middle, it also delivers the most revealing speech of the season so far.
Harry Da Souza (Tom Hardy) and Finch, his compromised contact in the police, dress the blast at Kevin’s yard as a gas leak. DCI Kavanagh smells trouble, especially after rechecking the ballistics from the dog-track shooting. Harry reads the danger fast. He stages a daylight jewelry heist, leaves behind a getaway car traceable to the family, and waits to see whether Finch hears about it. Finch hears nothing, so Harry drives him to a remote wood, promises his wife will keep getting paid, calls his bluff about an incriminating file, and hangs him in a staged suicide.
Elsewhere, Harry confronts Seraphina over her arrangement with Kat McAllister. Brendan’s death convinced her that Conrad cannot protect anyone, and Harry, who once weighed the same offer, recruits her as a double agent rather than burying her. Meanwhile, Tattersall functions in parallel with Kat while working alongside Frankie. Despite solving the Finch problem, the tide turns against Harry beyond what even he can see.
A bone he was born with
Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) sits Gina down for a threatening little chat, tracing Harry’s history from Newgate through the Parachute Regiment and private security to fifteen years at the family’s side. Then the score does something unusual for MobLand: it turns tender. A show that normally scores brutality with swagger suddenly sounds emotional, because Conrad is describing Harry’s loyalty: “His loyalty transcends reason beyond words. It’s just a bone he was born with—untarnishable."
This may be the most beautiful, poetic, and noble dialogue. Ronan Bennett has ever given Conrad, and it sounds suspiciously like a eulogy, which hints that he is not long for this world and perhaps heading for a season-finishing shellacking. Moments later comes what may be a highlight of the entire series: "A father in this world is a wall between you and the dark.” Appropriately, this wisdom is a rare and fleeting bright flash in the progressing twilight of Conrad’s lucidity.
The line explains why MobLand belongs in the proud tradition of Coppola’s The Godfather and, more recently, Scorsese’s The Irishman. Like those films, it romanticizes the kingpin through his unconditional love for a parent, specifically a father. Such devotion may be problematic today in its medieval patriarchy, but it is also nostalgic for a simpler, purer respect.
Soldier, killer, hero?
Conrad’s words to Gina also evidence one of the first times the series has spelled out Harry’s heroism and possibly its nearest approach to clarifying how Hardy’s serial-killing fixer remains an antihero despite murdering anyone who threatens the Harrigans. The show excels at the incongruity: the better Harry performs his job, the worse he looks as a human being. Or does he? The audience gets to decide.
Mention of his military past sharpens the question. MobLand has always been about war, only with gangsters battling over London instead of nations clashing. Judging by his work, Harry was a brilliant soldier, and soldiers are widely honored as national heroes for doing what he does for the family, often with a higher body count. Quietly, the show asks how serving the Harrigans’ campaign differs from serving a country’s.
Declaring war
Conrad then storms one of Frankie’s businesses with Paul, announces that Cooper wants a war, and mows down several men like bowling pins. Perhaps Conrad’s earlier eloquence was a swansong for his wiles. Emmett J. Scanlan remains delightfully deadpan as Paul, never missing a beat even as Maeve (Helen Mirren) waffles amicably about his nephew’s grisly murder, as though he had caught the flu.
Not far away, Jan grows more tragic and more isolated, with no true friend. She wakes beside Donnie, the man she believed had innocently rear-ended her car, but he is one of Frankie’s closest men, using her to weaken Harry. Frankie films the encounter and sends it to Harry. Jan could become a sacrificial lamb whose fate impresses upon viewers the real-world cost of mobland violence. Alternatively, she might surprise everybody, avenge herself, and survive, which would be a welcome, original twist and would suit a show with a run of strong women in an Irish patriarchy: Seraphina, Maeve, and Kat.
Johnny Flynn is outstanding as Frankie, increasingly infuriating and a match for Richie Stevenson, last season’s lead villain.
The Harrigans unravel
Watching the empire fall holds morbid fascination. Bella openly prefers Harry to Kevin, saying he handled her captivity better than her husband’s drawn gun. Antifreeze turns up among Maeve’s belongings, and Conrad has had enough of her lies and destruction, without yet showing his hand in this episode. Conrad again demands that Harry choose between him and Kevin, a thread the writers must address soon.
Worst of all, Maeve sends Eddie and Gina to Ireland, which cannot end well. If Gina is harmed, Harry will be devastated and Eddie may rage blindly into ruin. Harry has so far chosen the Harrigans over his own family, but how far must he be pushed to finally do a 180? And when all the walls crumble, what darkness lies behind?
“Blank Curtain” balances grim housekeeping against real feeling, and it leaves Harry caught between two loyalties. MobLand airs Fridays on Paramount+. Check back next week as we recap what comes next.
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